It’s not often you see a Twitter message retweeted nearly 3,000 times, unless of course it’s some political figure or Hollywood celebrity.
But that’s just what happened when English footballer Michael Owen got into a Twitter exchange with a soldier.
JOE reports, “James Talbot tweeted the former Liverpool and United footballer to ask whether he still played football, and it is difficult to know for certain whether this was a genuine question or a sly dig at the crocked striker.”
According to JOE, Owen has been struggling with injury for the majority of the season.
Owen responded by tweeting back to Talbot the following message:
“do you play football?” Not much nowadays but I shook the World in my day. What have you done in life?”
Little did Owen know how Talbot would respond.
Talbot then tweeted: “in answer to what I have done, served and protected your country in the army, 6 years of physical work without injury”
What was nothing more than a simple, honest response by Talbot, ended up quickly going viral and surprising the user who has less than 1,000 followers.
It appears Talbot has now been receiving abusive tweets by other Twitter users and spent time responding on Twitter earlier today.
A quick scan of the page shows numerous messages on both sides, some supportive, some not so much.
Joe Harrison @Joe_Harrison01 writes:
@JT1zzle @themichaelowen Well f*cking done. How good are you? You chose to so don't play that card
kurt whufc berry @kurt_squirt writes:
@JT1zzle hahaha bet he feels like a twat now mate!! Haha
David Woods @realdavidwoods
@JT1zzle @themichaelowen did the army teach u to pick a pointless fight? Nothing to be proud of here
As Talbot points out, “…I didn't say anything offensive, just responded to his belittling response…”
You can follow Talbot on Twitter at @JT1zzle
More at JOE.
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(PressGazette)
The Dangerous Logic of the Bradley Manning Case. After 1,000 days in pretrial detention, Private Bradley Manning yesterday offered a modified guilty plea for passing classified materials to WikiLeaks. But his case is far from over—not for Manning, and not for the rest of the country. To understand what is still at stake, consider an exchange that took place in a military courtroom in Maryland in January...
(New Republic)
Take the Iraq War Reading Pledge. This will be the 10th anniversary of the bombing of Baghdad, that began a war that was declared "mission accomplished" within two months of its start and that ultimately lasted more than eight years...
(Causes.com)
ZDNet cuts U.S. bloggers as it refocuses on global coverage. Business technology news site ZDNet has cut five bloggers from its staff in the past few weeks as it continues to realign its organization into a global one. ZDNet has a long history of writing about the technology industry, and CNET acquired it for $1.6 billion in July 2000. In 2003, ZDNet refocused to more closely cover business technology. In May 2008, CBS Interactive purchased CNET, and since that time, ZDNet has existed as a combination of technology blog network and news outlet...
(VentureBeat)
Love Letter To War Photographer Killed In Syria Leaves Journalist In Choked Silence. A BBC Radio 4 presenter was so overcome by emotion that he fell silent on air for more than ten seconds today after hearing a moving poem by the girlfriend of a French photographer killed in Syria. Paddy O’Connell struggled to compose himself following a reading of a love letter from Emilie Blachere to Remi Ochlik, who died alongside Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin in the besieged city of Homs last year. After the end of the poem, which was read by Miss Blachere herself, the airwaves were plunged into silence for about 12 seconds before the presenter regained enough composure to speak again...
(Business Insider)
Hostile Teacher Writes ‘The Guns Are Loaded’ On Chalkboard, Asks Kids If They’d ‘Care To Try Me?’. An Indiana teacher is on leave today after he wrote a variety of threats for his students on his classroom’s chalkboard. After calling his student’s idiots, he noted that his “guns are loaded.” The teacher concluded his menacing message by asking if his students would “care to try me?”
(Mediaite)
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Image credit: Defense.gov
John Wihbey over at Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab has summed up what's "new and fresh" in digital media academic research.
There are many interesting articles in the story, but one stands out more than the others - Crisis Mapping Intelligence Information During the Libyan Civil War: An Exploratory Case Study.
The study was conducted by researchers at Georgetown and the State Department.
Wihbey writes, "This eye-opening paper (from authors who have U.S. government and intelligence affiliations) examines whether or not Twitter users in Libya effectively provided “tactical military intelligence” that proved crucial to Western intervention and helped enforce a no-fly zone. The answer seems to be “yes.”
Here’s an abstract of the paper:
“Throughout the Libyan Civil War, Twitter users took the initiative to collect and process data for use in the rebellion against the Qadhafi regime, including map overlays depicting the situation on the ground. These data, in some cases, were processed in a way to make it easily consumable by NATO and coalition forces in their eventual enforcement of a No Fly Zone over Libya in mid-2011. This paper investigates whether the information collected and disseminated by Twitter users constituted tactical military intelligence. Some argue that to take advantage of open source information available through the Internet, organizations like NATO must first tackle the challenge of “determining how to deal with the huge amount of unstructured data in a useful and/or meaningful way.” On the contrary, this article shows how some crisis maps created during the Libyan Civil War met the minimum requirements to be considered tactical military intelligence.”
Of course, I’m only assuming it’s an interesting article, because it turns out you have to be a Harvard grad or something to read the entire paper.
Kidding...
You have to pay a fee, or have a society membership, or some institutional access in order to view the full research paper. Pretty much the same thing.
Granted, Virginia Tech is the Harvard of the Southern U.S.
More at Nieman Journalism Lab.
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The Indian Army's Additional Directorate General of Public Information, that's a mouthful, has joined Twitter.
The official account @adgpi
As reported by Hindustan Times, "Sources say that the Army is soon proactively going to make its presence known on social media with an official Facebook page or even a youtube channel in the offing."
The article does make mention of the U.S. military's use of social media, saying the US Army leads the way on social media in terms of armies of the world.
While the Indian Army is only now getting acquainted with social media, the US Army has literally hundreds (if not thousands) of official and unofficial social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on.
The first tweet sent out by the Indian Army was yesterday and included a picture of paratroopers of India and Bangladesh preparing for a jump (pictured above).
As of today, the Indian Army has nearly 2,000 followers on Twitter.
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(Twitchy)
Syrian Electronic Army’s Twitter hacking campaign racks up another victory. If you want a view into the governments arrayed on either side of Syria’s civil war, the Syrian Electronic Army’s hacking of the Qatar Foundation’s Facebook and Twitter accounts is a good place to start...
(Quartz)
CJP urged to take notice of tribal journalist’s killing. Expressing resentment over the assassination of Malik Mumtaz, a senior journalist from North Waziristan, Khyber Union of Journalists President Arshad Aziz on Thursday urged the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to take notice. “It is astonishing that the chief justice is active on all fronts but seems silent about growing violence against journalists,” the KUJ president said while addressing a protest rally...
(Pakistan Today)
Veteran Pakistani journalist gunned down in Baluchistan. March 1, 2013, New York--Pakistani authorities should investigate today's murder of a journalist in the country's restive Baluchistan province, determine the motive, and apprehend the perpetrators immediately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Unknown gunmen killed Mehmood Jan Afridi while he was headed to a local press club from his home in the city of Kalat, according to The Associated Press and local news reports. News accounts did not immediately report further details of the attack...
(CPJ)
Remembering a World War II veteran and artist. We are learning more about the sudden passing of a local World War II veteran. Captain Ed Reep died Wednesday, just 43 days before he was scheduled to fly to Washington D.C. as part of the next Kern County Honor Flight. At the age of 95, Captain Ed Reep's heart suddenly failed. He was surrounded by his family when he passed, and now his family is surrounded by his art, pieces he created serving in World War II and beyond...
(KGET TV 17)
Author to tell story of Irish Civil War unit in Springfield. A Nashville, Tenn. author will be at the Illinois State Military Museum Saturday to share stores about a Civil War regiment of Irish Americans and the flag they followed into battle...
(The State Journal-Register)
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The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been dealing with their share of social media scandals as social media use increases among the ranks.
Last month, a photograph posted to the Instagram account of 20-year old IDF sniper Mor Ostrovski caused outrage online. The photo showed a Palestinian boy's head in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle.
In November 2012, the IDF’s own social media division, which live tweeted and blogged its conflict with Hamas, caused a bit of an uproar after its social media chief Lt. Sacha Dratwa posted a picture of himself to Facebook. The photo showed Dratwa at the beach with his face covered in mud with a caption that read: "Obama Style".
An article this week by BBC News discusses the IDF’s mounting social media problems and recent incidents, including punishments they’ve dished out.
Though the IDF isn’t the only military in the world with its share of problems dealing with social media, because it’s mostly 18-21-year-olds serving in the military, it is a particular challenge, points out Yolande Knell.
According to the article, Israeli military commanders were recently told to stop recruits from uploading videos and pictures "not appropriate to the spirit of the IDF".
The directive comes shortly after two soldiers were sent to military prison for 14 and 21 days for posting a clip of the Harlem Shake to YouTube in February.
Read the full story here.
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More than two dozen military blogs were added to the Milblogging index in the month of February --- many of them spouse blogs, several veterans, and more. Pay them a visit and tell ‘em Milblogging.com sent you.
FraNk The NCO, Bob Helms, United States, Mildly Disgrunted, Mostly Content, Military NCO
Bloggin' Scogin, Becca, United States, My foray into the life of a military wife and the ...
Cautious Crow, Amber Crow, United States, Carefully navigating through life as a veteran, mi...
Semper Familia Life, Suzy Leanos, United States, Living the Marine Corps family life through Latina...
Marrying The Army, MilliGFunk, United States, A strategic marketing and brand professional who's...
The Professional Army Wife, Rachel Tringali, United States, I'm an army (military) spouse working as a PR prof...
The Kidwell's | Our Life as Airmen, Breeanna, United States, Recents: Graduate from University of South Flor...
Red, White, & Marine Wife, Kym, United States, I'm Kym...a Marine Wife, Daughter, and Sister. I'm ...
More Than a Military Spouse, Jessica, United States, My name is Jessica and I am a military spouse. Her...
Military Wife Life, Carrie, United States, Send me (Carrie, owner of MWL) or another veteran ...
Warmemoir, J.E. McCollough, United States, A counterintelligence Marine's recollection of the...
Our Wounded Family, Pauliesgirl77, United States, I've been the wife of a medically retired Army vet...
Yellow Ribbon Diary, Alia, United States, Wife, Mommy, Lover of God. Writing about the thing...
Glimpses of the Military Life, Allison, United States, Thanks for stopping by! My name is Allison. I am a...
Soldier Girl's Thoughts, Not specified, United States, she's simply JUST a: veteran, mom, spouse and mult...
The Air Force Wife, Rachel, United States, My name is Rachel. I am 19 years old and currently...
My Crazy Life as a Navy Wife, Lashon, United States, TIME SURE DOES FLY WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE MAN YOU LOV...
Army Wives Club, Jennifer Ray-Stewart, United States, Army Wives Club brings you resources and informati...
My Life as a Navy Wife, Katie H, United States, Hi ya'll, thanks for stopping by and welcome to my...
Eight Days a Week, Abbie, United States, Hello, my name is Abbie, I'm 22 years old and rece...
Chairman's Corner, Not specified, United States, A category dedicated strictly to the Chairman of t...
Successful Military Wife, Kaye Putnam, United States, A site to empower & educate military spouses to cr...
Fallen Heroes Afghanistan, Not specified, Not Specified, This website is a tribute to all foreign military ...
Soldiers Magazine, Not specified, United States, Soldiers Magazine is produced by the Defense Media...
The Long War Journal, Multiple editors and contributors, United States, The Long War Journal is dedicated to providing ori...
Chronicles of a Navy Wife in Perpetual Motion, Sar Mon, United States, I am a well seasoned military spouse. I started th...
On The Fly, Jessica, United States, I'm a twenty-something Pennsylvania girl who curre...
Feeling bloggy., B, United States, i'm b. my huz is henry. he is so cool.
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(Boing Boing)
China says US regularly hacks its military sites. Two Chinese military Web sites received about 144,000 hacking attacks on average a month last year, of which about two-third had originated from the United States. In a statement published Thursday on China's Ministry of Defense Web site, spokesperson Geng Yansheng said the ministry's site as well as the Web site of China Military Online--which is operated the Chinese army--faced "serious threat from hacking attacks" since their establishment. The number of hacks targeting the two sites also had risen steadily in recent years, he said...
(ZDNet)
New Slaying Highlights Perils Of Journalism In Pakistan's Tribal Areas. The Taliban has dissociated itself; the Pakistan Army has extended its condolences; and government functionaries, politicians, and civil-society representatives have offered condolences as "unidentified" armed men took the life of another journalist in Pakistan's perilous tribal areas on February 27...
(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Press Availability on Syria. SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon again. I just have a very brief statement, then I’m happy to take a few questions. I just got to look outdoors and actually see that it is a beautiful day here in Rome, and I want to again thank our host, the Foreign Minister, and thank Italy for bringing us here today. We’re enormously appreciative and I’m very grateful to them for that, and also to all of the partner nations who came here today. I have to tell you that around that table was a very important, competent, and powerful group of countries ranging through Europe down into the Gulf as well as Turkey and Egypt, and everybody was unanimous in their conclusions...
(U.S. Department of State)
Bradley Manning pleads guilty to being Wikileaks source, denies 'aiding the enemy'. US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty on 10 counts involving disclosing information to an unauthorized person, but has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including "aiding the enemy." On Thursday afternoon, military judge Colonel Denise Lind accepted Manning's guilty pleas, while prosecutors said they plan to pursue the 12 contested charges at trial. The guilty pleas cover less serious offenses of misusing classified information and carry a combined maximum sentence of 20 years. If convicted of aiding the enemy, Manning could be imprisoned for life...
(The Verge)
Bradley Manning court papers released after Pentagon bows to pressure. The Pentagon has acceded to pressure from news organisations and human rights groups protesting secrecy surrounding the prosecution of the WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, releasing 84 previously unpublished rulings and orders into the public domain. The Pentagon's decision to post on the internet scores of rulings made by the presiding judge, Colonel Denise Lind, and other judges involved in the court martial process, provides the first crack in the army's approach to public information in the trial...
(Guardian)
Book tells story of Alameda's woman family in World War II. On a July day in 1938, a young couple stepped off the dock at Pier 88 in New York City and boarded the SS Normandie, setting off for what they thought would be a six-week vacation in their native France. Instead, Alice and Emile Pothron were delayed more than a year and later separated as the Nazis swept across Europe. They then endured nearly two more years of hardship until they met again in Portugal and could return to the United States...
(Contra Costa Times)
Google, Facebook And Twitter Ordered To Delete Photos By UK Law Enforcement. It seems that, once again, the UK is going censorship crazy and not realizing how that only attacts more attention to that which they're trying to censor. This time, it involves some photos that were posted online of one Jon Venables, who at the age of 10, murdered 2-year old James Bulger, in a rather horrifying story. Venables was released from jail in 2001, at the age of 19 (though he has since gone back to prison). Photos of Venables, now 30 years old and apparently using a new identity to avoid his past, appeared online...
(Techdirt)
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The Atlantic Wire reports, "Around noon Eastern time, the photographs-only account of news service Agence France-Presse began tweeting images from the conflict in Syria. Except they were not only far below the quality levels of professional photographers, they were graphic images from the war, which the captions depicted as the handiwork of thuggish rebel armies, backed by Western conspirators."
The account @AFPPhoto was suspended by Twitter the same day, but as of yesterday the account is back online and AFP is in control.
AFP tweeted on Wednesday, "Finally! RT @AFP: Here we go, our @AFPphoto account is back up and running with great shot of Pope's farewell today."
The hacker posted graphic images and tweets, which have since been deleted.
The Atlantic Wire managed to capture screenshots of the messages.
Messages ranged from, "#Obama over turns ban against child sodliers while Syria|n rebels continue with the illegal practice" to "#Syria #Obama backed rebels use child to behead prisoners".
There are plenty more.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire (WARNING: GRAPHIC).
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It was over two months ago when I last wrote about the United States Marine Corps on Facebook.
At the time, their Facebook page had just passed 2,840,000 likes.
Well, here's another milestone in the military social media community...
On Monday February 25, the United States Marine Corps passed 2.9 million likes on Facebook.
According to PageData, in the last 7 days the page added nearly 7,000 likes and already has over 1,000 new likes today.
Where does the United States Marine Corps appear on the leaderboards?
As of today, they are ranked 1480th by Total Likes (Overall).
They’re ranked 1st in Total Likes among Government Organization pages.
They’re the 9th Most Talked about page among Government Organization pages.
The page is managed by Marine Corps Recruiting Command and can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/marinecorps
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Via Army Live:
There will be three 30-minute sessions so that Army subject matters experts can provide the most up-to-date information to Twitter users participating in the chat:
The first session from 11 – 11:30 a.m. will answer general questions about Civilian furloughs
The second session from 11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. will focus on how the furloughs may affect Army Family services and programs
The third session from 12 – 12:30 p.m. will focus on questions about the sequestration’s impact to Soldiers and training
To join in on the conversation, go to https://twitter.com/search and search for the hashtag #ArmyChat.
More details on the Twitter chat here.
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Not a big fan I’d say…
However, JM Berger, a terrorism expert who writes for IntelWire, and who is often cited as an authority on the topic in the media, offers up some arguments for allowing the likes of the terrorist group Al-shabaab to remain on Twitter and other social media sites.
According to Berger, within the terrorism studies community, there are two common objections to “disruptive approaches”.
Berger writes:
“The first objection is that knocking terrorists offline "doesn't work", because when you eliminate one account, the terrorists just open up a new account under a different name - which is exactly what al-Shabab did after a little more than a week. And then, the theory goes, you're back to square one. It's a high-tech game of whack-a-mole.
The second objection is that forcing terrorists off the internet destroys a valuable source of intelligence, because government, academic and private sector researchers rely on these online operations for information about what distant groups are doing and who supports them.”
It’s certainly an interesting piece and worth the read. Berger also provides a lot of detail and analysis.
To read the full story, go here.
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(CNN)
DOD announces “fix” to gay Web site ban that doesn’t fix anything. The Pentagon yesterday issued a memo apparently intended to at least partly “fix” the problem whereby a number of Defense Department computers were banning access to gay and trans Web sites, in addition to other liberal political content, while not banning similar conservative and anti-gay Web sites. The problem is that the new Pentagon memo doesn’t really fix a thing.
(AMERICAblog)
Jonathan Davis of Korn Talks "Wounded Warriors" Short Film. Jonathan Davis of Korn, aka "J Devil", gives more than any other musicians—on stage and in the studio. That's why everything he does continues to resonate with fans two decades into his career. That also brings us to the new short film in which he stars, Wounded Warriors directed by Sébastien Paquet. The film won the "Audience Choice Award" at the 2012 GI Film Festival Hollywood, and it's a passionate, poignant, and powerful look at Davis's trip to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
(ARTiSTdirect)
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ investigation closed — mission accomplished? On Monday, just hours after “Zero Dark Thirty” missed winning best picture and a clutch of other awards at the Oscars, the Senate Intelligence Committee closed its investigation into contacts between the filmmakers and the CIA, Reuters reported.
(Washington Post)
Reporter writes book chronicling Missouri's Civil War history. "It's history -- with a twist," is what Rudi Keller, author and former Southeast Missourian reporter, said about his new book "Life During Wartime." In the soon-to-be-released book, readers relive the past with day-by-day chronicles of the Civil War in Missouri. The idea, said Keller, is to make the war "contemporary."
(Southeast Missourian)
Pentagon Will Open Networks to Apple, Google Devices in 2014. The U.S. Defense Department said today it will begin opening its communications networks by next February to mobile phones and tablet computers from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) The move may pose a threat to BlackBerry (BBRY)’s dominance at the Pentagon, which has more than 450,000 of the company’s devices.
(Bloomberg)
In Cannibal Case, Officer’s Wife Testifies About a Chilling Discovery. One day last September, the wife of a New York City police officer opened her laptop computer and discovered that her husband had used it to visit a fetish Web site on the Internet. She said she went to the site and saw a photograph of a dead girl. And that, she testified on Monday, was only the beginning.
(The New York Times)
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Via Red Bull Rising:
Entries will be judged on factors such as: originality, creativity, humor, and adherence to the specified haiku format.
"We chose the haiku not for any particular connection to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Honduras, or any other country in which the United States has deployed the 'Forward Operating Base' ('FOB') concept," says mil-blogger Charlie Sherpa, "but for the simplicity and accessibility of the form."
"That," he says, "and it lends itself equally to both sarcasm and sincerity. I anticipate plenty of both."
Deadline is March 18, 2013. Only one submission per entrant. Entrants may, however, submit up to three haiku in a single entry. For entry methods, see below.
For the purposes of the contest, a haiku poem will:
Consist of three lines; each respectively comprising 5, 7, and 5 syllables each, for a total of 17.
Refer either to a character or characters, setting, music, and/or narrative of the TV show "China Beach," or to a similar real-life military setting, such as a Forward Operating Base ("FOB"), main operating base, Combat Outpost ("COP") or patrol base.
Ideally incorporate a reference to one of the four seasons, or to nature.
Note that the syllables of acronyms and initialisms are counted as they would be pronounced aloud. For example: "TV" is two syllables; "REMF" is one syllable.
Three prizes will be awarded:
First-prize: A boxed DVD of the entire "China Beach" television series, never-before-released on DVD or VHS. Includes 62 episodes on 21 DVD, and features 268 classic hit songs as originally broadcast—and more than 10 hours of bonus features, including a cast reunion with Dana Delany, Marg Helgenberger, Michael Boatman, and Robert Picardo and more. For previous Red Bull Rising coverage of "China Beach," click here.
To learn about the prizes and the different ways to enter, visit Red Bull Rising.
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The controversy over the nicknamed “Drone Warfare Medal” is still getting a lot of attention – although the Defense Department is standing behind its decision to not lower its precedence, allowing the new medal to rank higher than some awarded for valor in combat.
Helping to keep the discussion going among news sites and blogs is a Photoshopped image (pictured above) of the Distinguished Warfare Medal that was posted to The Duffel Blog Facebook page over a week ago.
It's been circulated all over the place.
While the image might make you laugh, there is some truth behind the image, as there is some truth behind many of the Duffel Blog’s stories.
And the image is still viral…
In a piece that appeared in The New York Times on Friday, the image was used again with a reference to the military satire blog.
Heather Murphy writes:
“It is only fitting that the announcement of a medal created for the digital age spawned its own Internet memes. As soon as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced the creation of the new Distinguished Warfare medal — immediately dubbed the Drone Medal — images such as the one below began appearing on blog after blog; in tweet after retweet.”
Despite the Defense Department sticking to its guns, the controversy isn’t over yet.
As Murphy points out in her article, an online petition demanding that the status of the medal be revised is online and has over 13,000 signatures.
The petition reads:
The Pentagon is introducing a new medal to recognized the service of pilots of unmanned drones during combat operations. This medal will be placed in precedence order just below the Distinguished Flying Cross and just above a Bronze Star Medal. Bronze Stars are commonly awarded with a Valor device in recognition of a soldier's service in the heat of combat while on the ground in the theater of operation. Under no circumstance should a medal that is designed to honor a pilot, that is controlling a drone via remote control, thousands of miles away from the theater of operation, rank above a medal that involves a soldier being in the line of fire on the ground. This is an injustice to those who have served and risked their lives and this should not be allowed to move forward as planned.
In order to get attention by The White House, more than 80,000 signatures are needed by March 16 of this year.
You can read the full NYT story here.
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(FrontPageMage)
Dumbest Man on Internet’s New Paranoid Fantasy: VA Prohibits Veterans From Owning Guns! Insane paranoid fantasies gush out of the right wing like water from a firehose, and today Jim Hoft, the legendary dumbest man on the Internet, has received another link from Drudge Report for spreading a fear-mongering lie about the Veteran’s Administration...
(Little Green Footballs)
Marie Colvin Death Anniversary, And Syria One Year On. When Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in Homs, Syria, the bloody conflict had regularly been the front page of every newspaper, day after day, for many of the previous months. Evidence from eye witnesses, including Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy who was working with Marie, said that they had been deliberately targeted. Journalists are no longer protected by a vest that says "Press"...
(Huffington Post)
Walking Wounded: Photographer Giles Duley returns to Afghanistan's frontline. When I met Giles Duley at a London hospital in October 2011 where he was recovering from the latest in a series of operations. Nine months earlier he had trodden on a landmine while embedded with American troops in Afghanistan and become the first, and so far only, British civilian triple-amputee to survive his injuries from the conflict...
(The Independent)
'Vet Ink' shares tales of battle, loss and life-long pride. The five men are not her brothers. But that’s what she calls them. The five initials are not for her children. But many who spot her non-sleeved left arm ask if the tight stack of black letters represents her kids. The question bothers her...
(NBC News)
At Arlington National Cemetery, "The Old Guard" Embraces New Technology. In a unique application of mobile technology, Arlington National Cemetery issued 60 Apple iPhones to more than 70 soldiers who spent three months photographing and mapping the cemetery’s entire 624 acres. Arlington made news in October 2012 when it launched the ANC Explorer app, which allows visitors to find the graves of loved ones using Apple iOS or Google Android smartphones, as well as the cemetery’s website or kiosks located at Arlington. Hard work over the preceding 18 months made the app possible...
(FedTech Magazine)
Afghan Coming-of-Age Film Is Oscar Contender. The Oscars will be presented Sunday night in Hollywood. One of the nominees for Live-action Short Film is Buzkashi Boys, a coming of age story set in Afghanistan. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports it shows a side of life in Afghanistan seldom seen outside the country...
(YouTube)
Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do. In the first study of its kind, researchers with the Defense Department have found that pilots of drone aircraft experience mental health problems like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress at the same rate as pilots of manned aircraft who are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan...
(The New York Times)
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The United States Air Force is close to reaching 1.2 million likes on Facebook.
As I’m writing this, the U.S. Air Force's official Facebook page is at 1,199,477 million likes.
In the last 7 days, the page added more than 3,500 likes and today it tacked on 400+.
By my calculations, the Facebook page should top 1.2 million likes within a matter of hours.
With over 1 million likes, the Air Force still isn’t the top U.S. military Facebook page.
That honor currently belongs to the Marine Corps page, which is managed by Marine Corps Recruiting Command, at nearly 3 million likes.
The #2 spot is the United States Marine Corps’ official Facebook page, which is managed by active-duty Marines, at over 2.6 million Likes.
# 3 goes to the U.S. Army with 1.7 million likes.
Next, is the National Guard in the #4 spot with 1.3 million likes.
Then, the Air Force is in the # 5 spot, with the U.S. Navy a distant # 6 with just over 800,000 likes.
If you want to help the Air Force reach 1.2 million, you can find them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/USairforce
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(The Columbus Dispatch)
One Month in Damascus: A Photographer's War Story. Rebel fighters in Damascus are disciplined, skilled and brave. In a month on the frontline, I saw them defend a swath of suburbs in the Syrian capital, mount complex mass attacks, manage logistics, treat their wounded -- and die before my eyes. But as constant, punishingly accurate, mortar, tank and sniper fire attested, President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers on the other side, often just a room or a grenade toss away, are also well drilled, courageous -- and much better armed.
(PBS News Hour)
Syria - Fighter Jet Downed (As It Happened). Multi cam footage of a Syrian war plane shot down by the FSA today 20/Feb/2013.
(YouTube)
When Terrorists Take to Social Media. At the end of January, Twitter suspended the account of the Somali-based Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The account was taken offline after the group posted a video on Twitter threatening to kill two Kenyan hostages unless the Kenyan government met its demands. Twitter didn't comment on the account deletion, but social-media experts reasoned that Al-Shabaab had violated Twitter's terms of service, which prohibit direct threats of violence.
(The Atlantic)
Post-Dispatch reporter, photographer on radio today talking Afghanistan. For the past month, Post-Dispatch reporter Jesse Bogan and photographer J.B. Forbes have been filing stories, photos and videos from their stint with the Missouri National Guard, 1138th Engineer Company in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. The company is made up of are combat engineers. Their mission is to clear IEDs from the roads.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Wife defends accused urination video cameraman. The wife of a Marine charged with filming himself and his teammates urinating on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan claims her husband is a war hero who was about to receive the nation’s third-highest combat valor award when the scandal became public.
(NavyTimes)
Police use Facebook to inform mother of her son's death. What do you do if someone who isn't a friend sends you a Facebook message? Some people might not even know they've received one. It might well appear in their "Other" folder and who looks there? In the case of Anna Lamb-Creasey, it took her weeks to realize someone had tried to contact her. It turned out that the message -- with the profile picture of Atlanta rapper T.I.-- came from a lieutenant in the police force.
(CNET)
NKorea to allow mobile Internet for foreigners. North Korea will soon allow foreigners to tweet, Skype and surf the Internet from their cellphones, iPads and other mobile devices in its second relaxation of controls on communications in recent weeks. However, North Korean citizens will not have access to the mobile Internet service to be offered by provider Koryolink within the next week.
(Yahoo! News)
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Image credit: reddit.com/r/military
It looks like the theme this week on the military subreddit is “Badass”.
While there are plenty of “badass” photos to view and stories to read in the subreddit, the top story right now depicts a World War II-era photo of a medic rescuing another soldier (shown above). The wounded soldier fires his weapon as he’s being carried to safety by the medic.
The photograph looks authentic.
“Bad ass and tear jerking at the same time” reads the title of the user that submitted it.
Agreed...
Well, guess what? The image is actually a photograph of a miniature war scene. “While I have no doubt scenes like this may have happened in real life.. These are unfortunately miniature toys,” writes Reddit user meissner61.
Truthfully, when I quickly glanced at the thumbnail photo in black-and-white, it looked like a genuine WWII image to me.
The photo is actually one of many that you can see in "Marwencol”, a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp. Hogancamp built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard he calls “Marwencol” and populates the town with miniatures and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's dramas.
Below is the original PEW PEW PEW! photo posted on Marwencol.com back in May 2011 in a post called Rescuing Major.
You can learn more about Marwencol here.
According to the website, "Marwencol" was released theatrically by the Cinema Guild and aired on PBS. It has won over 25 awards.
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Image credit: duffelblog.com
The Duffel Blog has done it again.
This time, the satirical military blog has tricked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In October 2012, The Duffel Blog published “Guantanamo Prisoners To Receive GI Bill Benefits” which said the Department of Defense had begun allowing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to seek Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits.
Though the story was intended to be a joke, some took the bait.
According to Stars and Stripes:
The Duffel Blog alarmed one Kentucky resident so much that he or she was prompted to write to Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office forwarded the note to the Defense Department, asking officials to review and respond to the constituent’s concerns, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Stars and Stripes.
The Duffel Blog, which now has over 40,000 fans on Facebook, has made headlines several times over the past year for other pieces of satire that fooled readers, like the story of the DoD banning Tapout clothing for all military personnel.
In November 2012, as reported by the Examiner, thousands of Mitt Romney supporters demanded a recount after reading that military absentee ballots were delivered one day late. The story was first posted on The Duffel Blog.
Read more about The Duffel Blog’s latest adventure over at Stripes.
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